Boy Holding a Sword, Standing near a Table in an Interior; verso: Various Sketches of Figures and Ornamental Forms 17th century Anonymous, Dutch, 17th century In a simple interior, a boy wearing an ample cloak stands near a chair and table, holding a sword and looking tensely at the viewer. Through the doorway in the left background, a sculpted bust on a wooden pedestal is visible. The drawing is a somewhat unusual example of the kind of genre scenes produced by numerous mid-seventeenth-century Dutch artists, depicting the young boy in a role usually reserved for a gentleman or soldier, and lending a slightly eerie character to the scene. The author of the drawing has not yet been identified; one of the monograms on the verso may offer a clue. The former attribution to Anthonie Palamedesz. (1601-1673), known for his interior scenes with soldiers, cannot longer be upheld, as is clear from a comparison with, for instance, a figure study by that artist in the Museums collection (acc. 200